Jumana El-Husseini, also known as Jumana El-Husseini Bayazid, came from a politically engaged family. Her father, Jamal El-Husseini, was a leader in the 1930s Palestinian resistance movement. In 1945, following her father’s exile by the British in Rhodesia, the family relocated to Baghdad and eventually settled in Lebanon in 1949. J. El-Husseini began her education in Political Science at the Beirut College for Women in 1953. In 1956 she transferred to the American University of Beirut to study Fine Arts.
Her early works, such as The Magic Horse (ca. 1966) and Henna Night (1967), are characterised by their use of circles and arches, and vivid colour divisions, including gold, served as visual metaphors of Jerusalem and the longing for return, reflecting the shared Palestinian experience of displacement. She also drew inspiration from poets such as Samih al-Qassim (1939–2014) and Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008), incorporating their words into her paintings with collage-like compositions. Her pieces often featured birds and traditional elements, as seen in The Spring of Palestine (1970), where coloured forms blend with birds, writings and a map to symbolise the resilience of her homeland.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, J. El-Husseini’s work was featured in important local exhibitions, such as the Salon d’Automne at the Sursock Museum, and was used on the covers of Shu’un Filastiniyya [Palestinian Affairs], published by the Palestinian National Liberation Movement. As a founding member of INAASH (the Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps), established by the artist Huguette Caland (1931–2019) in 1969 in Beirut, J. El-Husseini taught traditional embroidery designs to the Palestinian women of the association. Embroidery was also a key theme in her paintings, such as in Untitled (1970), which depicts a woman seated on a black horse, both adorned in stitched motifs.

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 forced J. El-Husseini to relocate to Paris. Her studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1990 influenced her transition to abstraction, where calligraphy and architectural motifs, particularly references to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, became central elements in her work. These elements symbolised a commitment to documenting the Palestinian culture at risk, while maintaining a spiritual connection to land through forms.

During the First Intifada (1987–1993), her oeuvre became more abstract, with darker tones and a focus on materials such as wood and stones from the Dead Sea. Her later works, such as Untitled (1990), incorporated a palimpsest method, consisting of layered calligraphic patterns celebrating the rich and complex history of the Levant, with elements of Palestinian landscape and heritage hidden beneath the surface – a technique she described as “reverse archaeology”.

J. El-Husseini exhibited in various venues in Beirut and Amman, and participated in important group shows, including the 38th Venice Biennale (1979) and the Smithsonian Institution’s touring exhibitions (1987). Her works are part of prominent collections, including the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, the Khalid Shoman Foundation and the Barjeel Art Foundation.